K-Ar geochronology of the western half of Tupungato volcano: the 1984 Hildreth-Drake-Fierstein expedition

During 23 days in February 1984, the team made up by Wes Hildreth, Bob Drake, and Judy Fierstein explored and sampled much of the western half of the Tupungato volcano, a Chile-Argentina natural landmark at ~33.3° S, including its summit area. The project remained unfinished, and this impressive, ~6,550 m-high volcanic edifice was no longer the focus of significant studies. Forty years later, Wes Hildreth has given up and graciously handed over to us all his data, so it can now be shared with the geological community. Bob Drake dated six samples of Tupungato through the K-Ar technique. In a dacite dome from the southern summit, interpreted as the youngest Tupungato activity, a hornblende age of 831±116 ka is reported. A long-standing controversy is thus resolved: Tupungato has no Holocene activity. 1.26±0.6 Ma to 932±90 ka plagioclase ages are reported from three andesite lavas from the lower to middle flank of the volcano, constraining the age of the edifice to the Early Pleistocene. Finally, hornblendes from two pre-Tupungato dacitic deposits at the volcano’s western foothill were dated at 11.4±0.5 Ma and 9.45±0.6 Ma. These much older deposits may represent pyroclastic rich facies similar to the ones described in the upper sections of the Tunuyán Conglomerates, in Argentina.